Republicans, Democrats connect through food choices

Politics may divide a country of voters, but regardless of party affiliations we are also a nation of hungry consumers. A new survey championed by a national newspaper looked at food choices of both parties.

The results of the survey show that both red and blue states have more in common than many think.

According to the survey conducted by the research firm NPD Group for USA Today, the assumption that consumers from red and blue states maintain different eating habits is quashed.

"We seek out our differences, but we all have about the same eating and drinking habits," Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at NPD, told USA Today.

Though both parities had some similarities, there were some differences. The survey found that:

At breakfast, consumers in blue states prefer cold cereal (29 percent vs. 26 percent), though those in red states are more likely to reach for a glass of milk (12.5 percent vs. 9.7 percent).

Yet at lunch and dinner, those in blue states were more likely to drink milk than the red-staters.

When it’s time to grab a snack, ice cream was chosen by 7 percent of blue state consumers. The creamy dairy dessert was missing completely from the list of top 5 snacks for red states.

The survey also compared these eating and drinking trends with those of consumers in swing states. The result showed that swing state consumers are more likely to share food choices with blue states than red states.